I am Connwaer and no matter what anyone tells you I am a wizard: a good one that has a dragon to help me named Pip. I want to protect the city from a rogue magic: Arhionvar but I can't protect myself from the very people that should be on my side!

They were so stupid why were they hanging me when Arhionvar was coming to take over the city? Because there're stupid; but I'm doing this to save the magic of Wellmet as my duty as a wizard like they should be doing. I have to save the magic somehow especially after Wellmet's magic saved me. They don't even give me a fair trial! They are making the hanging platform before I am even on their so-called trial! Them and there one-sided minds.

They have dropped to a new low; afraid of new ideas and are writing in wrong spells we can't use in the textbooks: how dumb of them! There is nothing I can do for the magic; it's too late and they are about to hang me, about to kill me. For a crime that was me thinking in strange 'to them' ways. I wonder though: when Arhionvar takes over will it really change this city at all?

Rowan Pov.

They can't hang him I must stop this outrage. I owe it to him and so do they: how can they forget what he's done to help us! This is unthinkable when what's coming. My mom was sick and I wasn't present: how can they do the trial without one of us; Nimble overstepped himself and this must stop!

Nimble Pov.

Finally the thief will die; he caused the death of my colleague and friend Pettivox and his outlandish ideas: yes he must die and I will enjoy it. He has destroyed property and has caused nothing but trouble. Plus he's a gutterboy and his ideas: Magic alive? The most foolish idea I have ever heard!

Connwaer Pov.

Suddenly there was a howl; the magic Arhionvar had begun its attack! It came in a cloud-like way that started small but growing in speed and size as it came upon us. It was so giant it towered over the Dawn Palace like a huge wave. For a moment it was still: then it fell. Its attack came of hopelessness and despair, the wizards felt it the worse but what could they do? Denying it existed and unprepared they didn't know any spells or even have the power; to make Arhionvar leave. But that didn't mean it didn't exist and then it raised itself high as though it was looking for something.

Look at those cowards what did they expect; that denying something makes it not exist; that it won't appear. What fools and then gift-wrapping a wizard to possess and take over the city; me. It wanted me to be its eye or it's Adeawet. I felt a shiver of fear of what will come crawl up my spine. I remembered the feeling of that rouge magic in you: all the bad things swirling in you making you want to give in. Even with Pip I was tempted, very tempted to let it happen. Already I could feel it in my mind, whispering how together we could chance the city for the better. How wizards would be taught how wonderful magic was the right way: the way it was meant to be.

"Well what do we have here? But I though you insisted they didn't abandon you and here they are hanging you my Black Shadow. How is this city worth protecting my Black Shadow? Why do you resist my attempts to make the city better my Black Shadow?" Arhionvar mutters.

Everyone froze; the magic made you freeze and hearing it speak: what they wished wasn't true was proven for them. The tone was if a wise person who seemed to have seen everything to be seen and knows what you should do. That you should do it.

Looking up I realized that Arhionvar is in its true form of a dragon; made up of white magic as it swirled above me.

I reply "My magic hasn't abandoned me Arhionvar." It hasn't I can feel the familiar magic coursing through me, protecting me. The magic unlike the people it was protecting had known about Arhionvar before it was even cadged by Crowe.

Asking the magic to free me I thought about how I escaped from Arhionvar earlier, it went through my mind, through my stone and my magic heard. Then a black bird; a magic's bird flew down to the gallows and drops in my hand; lockpick wires.

"Well, well that's how you escaped my Adeawet's fortress; the birds gave you a way to escape." Arhionvar remarks; in a commenting way, like it was a good idea.

Why was Arhionvar so amused? Freeing myself from the cuffs I reached to take off the rope: I couldn't. They made it so I couldn't escape and put me in more agony than usual if I had been hanged. I was still trapped and even if I could release myself I was corned by guards. My only hope was Arhionvar. Why was it helping me?

"My black shadow look what this city is doing to you; arresting you and about to hang you; may I ask what for? I'm sure I can revise it. After all I know from your memories that you are innocent; well at least you don't mean harm to this city." Arhionvar questioned.

What was Arhionvar up too? It was defending me? Seems like I will get a fair trial after all. All because of Arhionvar: maybe it wasn't so bad.

"THAT'S IS NOT POSSIBLE" Nimble yelled in fury. He wants me dead; he must hate me very much if he can even get past the chill of Arhionvar to yell.

"I will speak for him" Arhionvar demanded in a way that made you think that I should have been freed at once, that this was a grave mistake.

Nimble was shaking like a leaf and a rather weak wizard so he agreed. I was surprised that he could do anything at all but then I noticed that Arhionvar made him agree: he wants me to be proven innocent. Arhionvar was quickly becoming good in my mind.

"He was hanged for illegal pyrotechnic materials and causing damage to property both private and public." Nimble droned reading from an official document.

"So he saves your duchess's life by using the explosion of pyrotechnic materials to get rid of my shadow and you're hanging him for it?" Arhionvar innocently asks.

Duh! I feel like smacking myself: of course Arhionvar knows I killed that shadow; it's his shadow.

"Yeah he knew how to get into the Dawn Place; if fact I copied him in getting in. So even after he sneaks in the first time you only put one guard protecting the queen; he could have killed her. Plus shouldn't you have heard of a decoy, like by attacking the front doors you can slip in someone else quietly? Well he has unlike you. Knowing it might be a decoy he went his way and found my shadow's trail. He then saved the duchess when he did the 'illegal' experiment use the 'illegal' materials and proving his point that you can do magic without a stone that comes from our hoard." Arhionvar continues.

"He also survives touching a shadow's core while your 'great' duchess can't withstand a knife and helps his master figure out where the shadows came from. So you're hanging him for that, wow great city your saving my Black Shadow." Arhionvar finishes looking pointy at me.

"I'm saving my magic Arhionvar; they will still be fools no matter what magic is here." I sigh, "the city itself will never change: they will still be fools except for a few, but I owe Wellmet's magic for all that it's done.

"How bad is it?" Arhionvar inquirers, "I must make sure the so-called wizards have basic knowledge; congratulations at finding out what we were my Black Shadow. But I believe we are proving your innocent so I will answer your questions later my Black Shadow."

"Even if what you claim is true he used the materials to blow up the Night Bridged and Heartsease," Nimble drones; still under Arhionvar's control.

"The people judging you young one are pen pushes or the kind that only think certain old ideas are correct." Arhionvar remarks addressing me.

"Yes," I rely, "do they ever". Arhionvar addressed me as young one: certainly no one cared putting up this trial and Nevery acts like this is a bad thing to be: Arhionvar says it like its someone he's teaching about the world so that person can be just as wise. I guess Arhionvar isn't so bad after all.

"For the Heartsease you forget to mention that he blew up Heartsease completely but the tree he fell in was fine and much closer to the explosion then the other side of the house. Do you know how much black powder material is needed to blow up a building of that size? Much more than he could have bought from the twilight right? No one would have that much illegal Blackpowder. And how could he have survived that explosion so close with only an arm dislocated from the fall when that bodyguard got so hurt? Arhionvar questioned. "And it's not his fault for the spell he was doing to not work properly and destroy the bridge. I know that several of your spells have gone haywire lately so how can you blame him if he followed the directions and it went wrong?"

"Well why should we listen to you if what he says is true you're the one that let loose the shadows on us!" Nimble yelped. "You were also behind the magic decay and Underlord incident last winter. You're the reason all those people died and the reason the Duchess is very sick!"

"You don't know the spell to repel them? I know you found out it was Darksilver so why didn't you make it explode or turn the Darksilver back to quicksilver? "Arhionvar wondered.

"Can you heal everyone touched by your shadows Arhionvar?" I asked, "They don't trust me and you can do it much faster?"

"Fine I will heal everyone still alive," Arhionvar agreed. "I need to collect the shadows anyway so I can return it to the dessert city."

"You planed this?" I asked. Wait, if Arhionvar returned it then that magic would be more arched and then if the magic put the Quicksilver in a new area it couldn't be mined anymore!

"That's genius," I shouted!

While everyone else was looking at me weird I was basking in the discovery that the dessert city: Desh wouldn't be destroyed! Looking at Arhionvar I saw what I know was a grin that Arhionvar knows that I got its plan. In that moment the chill was gone: instead warmth swept thought the city thawing out the stone feeling: I knew there would be no more shadows anywhere in Wellmet anymore. I also knew soon Desh would be well too.

"Well he's a thief, a gutterboy and he steals who knows what, and came back from exile," Nimble shrieked. He was now back and under his own control because of that warmth.

"HE CAME BACK IN A DRAGON'S CLAW WIZARD! DO YOU THINK HE WANTED TO LAND NEAR THE DAWN PALACE! HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO GET AWAY FROM A DRAGON! SWORDS DON'T WORK! YOU ARRESTED HIM WHEN HE WAS FORCED BACK IN THE CITY! HE DIDN'T COME BACK ON HIS OWN FREE WILL! FOOLS!" Arhionvar bellowed.

"He's a thief and gutterboy," Nimble whimpered.

"Do you know why he was a thief?" Arhionvar calmly asked. "It's an interesting story: even though no one has actually wanted to hear it. In fact how come you ONLY wanted to know where he was from: not WHY his master chose him to be his apprentice?"

"He still bought the illegal materials," Nimble whispered.

"Oh so you are going to kill a kid when he didn't even pay for them or take them into the city? That's very fair indeed. Especially when you don't have the right in the first place. Killing can only be done after a trial where the duchess or duchess-to-be is there. You over steped yourself."

"He still broke the law," Nimble desperately said.

"Then exile him and give him proper supplies to get to the next city," Arhionvar suggested in his oh-so-resemble tone.

It hit me; the magic of Wellmet was protecting me here but outside of the city Arhionvar could easily break into my mind and control me. I was still trapped by the rope around my neck I was doomed.

Author's Notes

This is the improved chapter of Fair Trial. I will try to update more over the summer but I found all my files from word weren't download on to the new laptop: and that my other stories were in terrible shape! Next chapter: Conn's family gets out into the open: even his father!

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.